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Deer Feeders - Keeping squirrels and coons off them

Looking for suggestions to keep squirrels/coons from destroying our hunt club feeders. I don't know the brand name but they are heavy duty black plastic with automatic dispensers. They hang from wooden post suspended on wire cable. Problem is the squirrels/coons are eating holes in the top lid and bottom rim causing rain to get into the feed then it clogs up and the feed is pretty much ruined. We've tried putting chicken wire around the top but they are still finding a way to get through and chew the holes. Any suggestions that work for you would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for the metal feeders advice. I think the club initially invested too much to start with plastic because they got a good price per unit, so we may have to replace them slowly with metal as funds are available. Also may have to resort to knocking off a few squirrels/coons early this season to thin out these corn/protein fed thiefs. I'm also expecting to see a few antlered squirrels/coons with the amount of record rack deer protein they've been eating, HA!

Me and the wife were at the farm last week and rode down to check my feeders. There was a large tuft of fur on my spinplate. Best I can figure is a squirrel or some critter was entirely too close when it came on. Bet he wont be back. LOL

Several years ago, a friend and I made "wildlife" feeders to sell. One thing we found out real quick was the affect squirrels and raccoons had on plastic containers. We built all of our feeders entirely out of steel. These were gravity drop feeders and the public was big on timed motorized types. We had to stop production when the ecomony went sour due to the cost of materials and corn prices. Squirrels and coons would still eat out of them but could not get to the feed inside. The only feeder that we had damaged was in the mountians by a bear. the owner had a camera on the feeder so we knew what had got. Ours were priced about the same as plastic feeders but were not as "pretty" as the plastic type and looks sells they say.

Simple fix

If the feeders are on metal cable as stated, here is a simple fix. Take down the feeder. Poke holes in the bottom of coke or beer cans. String the metal cable through the cans. Then attach it back to the feeder. This will keep squirrels from Johnny Cash'ing your feeders. When the squirrels try to "walk the line" the cans will spin which will make them fall. I am sure you get the idea. Super fast and cheap fix.

Or yall could just not feed. Deer are not that hard to kill and lots of us have been doing it for years without corn or pellets.

As far as the pellets go some folks in the club had to try them a few years back thinking that it would grow these steroid looking bucks with big racks. They made half barrel feeders and put a roof on them and the coons and turkeys and squirrels eat us alive. We may have got 5 different bucks coming to the feeders and only very sporadic. We kept having to throw the pellets away because a little moisture would get in there and it would rot and be just a big pile of maggots. We still have a member or two that swears by them even after our results but the rest of our members just hunt the lay of the land and wind and natural food sources and do quite well killing good bucks every year without corn or pellets. Yes we do have food plots.